I have the smelliest (in a good way) roses this side of my backyard fence.

I wore my first headband since elementary school to dinner w/ Tony and my dad last night, and still have not cleaned the mirror.

While sandal shopping yesterday, I happened across these little gems and had myself a good chuckle. By Skechers.

And finally, my "big girl" shoes. Never thought of myself as a Birkenstock lass, but there ya go. It's a matter of my fact that i have very funky feet and just maybe they will be friends with these sandals.

So there's that. If you're in Salt Lake City, I suggest you ditch the rain by making chocolate chip cookies in your dry, warm kitchen. Share the cookie dough with your husband only if he deserves it especially.

Friday, May 27, 2011

You know what I like? I like shopping. I loooove shopping. (I don't like spending money, but we're not talking about that.)

I am not usually the kind of person who can tandem shop, unless it's just for funsies. I am super picky about my clothes and most things, and I'm really indecisive, and when I'm with other people I usually get all flustered and either buy something I don't really like or buy nothing at all -- and those are the two things you just don't want to do when you go shopping! So sometimes my idea of fun and relaxing is to hit up the mall all by mahself.

I like Forever 21, because it's a sign unto me that the Universe is a happy place when there are $2.50 necklaces for me to buy. It's impossible to say no.

Today I went with the intent to find something "pretty" and "girly" for my hair, because as it turns out...I don't have hair accessories that are either of those. Sometimes I think I must have missed the seminar that every other girl went to in their tweens that taught them how to be a proper girl, like how to put your hair in a messy bun and how to do your makeup so you don't always look like you just fell out of bed. I would get an F on these things.

You know where I would shop if I were a rich person? Urban Outfitters. I just, I would.

And if anyone knows where a girl with ultra wide feet and ultra high arches can get a cute pair of sandals, would you just let me know already?

I'm determined to go swimming this summer. So a friend and I went swimsuit shopping, and this is what I bought myself:

I quit my job. Did you know that I had a job? I worked in a daycare, in a classroom of 8 toddlers. But not longer, because ! I have a new job. As a private nanny. For one (that's right, one (1)), infant. In case you don't know kids, this will be a huge change. I start Monday. Excited, yes. Already missing my toddlers? Ohh man.

So, sorry for the blog neglect. Part of it is due to the state of my craft room, in which the computer resides. Our stuff is still largely boxed up, and I don't know, I guess my mojo has just felt like hibernating. My attention span has been mostly Tumblr-sized.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I do hope you'll forgive me for all the fluffy, non-wordy, especially video-y posts I've been turning out lately. Something about, something, I don't know, in the water? ...What are we talking about again? Apparently my brain is not nearly the insomniac that my body is.

Here's a song! I'm a little ashamed that I found this thanks to Glee, but really why haven't I heard this song before? I think it's beautiful.

Monday, May 16, 2011

So as it turns out, I went to Wal-Mart today. I want to say something about Wal-Mart, but as it also turns out, Wal-Mart holds no enchantments for me today. Except for how swimsuits and lawnmowers are being sold under the same roof, along with bleach and beef jerky and plastic flower pots. I got some, by the way.

Bleh. This post hold no enchantments for me right now.

Each time I happen to be in a grocery store checkout line, I receive the opportunity to further deepen my suspicions that Paula Deen is no longer real.

She must be a robot somehow.

Did you know that snapdragons are NOT perennials? I did not know this! Wal-Mart told me this. That store is always telling me things I'm not sure I wanted to know. Like a bag of tortilla chips for $3.00? Please, I'm better off not knowing.

Antonio is gone til Thursday, which means my brain no longer understands Time and lets me stay up much past my bedtime. When you work with children you must NEVER DO THIS. Because they can tell as soon as you walk in that you are not prepared to deal with shenanigans, and they will pay particular attention to the giant wooden blocks they're not allowed to play with, and other such examples of blatant troublemaking. Crying out suddenly in their sleep during naptime? Causing your heart to explode with the suddenness and causing all their classmates to begin ominously rolling and tossing about in their cots and it's only 1:30! Do you think they know they're doing this and why? You bet they do. They feed off your exhaustion.

Kitties Who Once You Lovingly Applied Eyedrops To and Evil Realtors also know how to sour your stayed-up-too-late-and-slept-with-no-husband mood.

Days like these require one to shove all the fresh vegetable fixings for what promises to be a righteous salad in the fridge and have Corn Pops for dinner instead.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Secondly, one of my favorite blogs I follow is written in French. I don't have any idea what any of it says, but I think it's a design blog and really, how many of those can you have before throwing up? (Answer: I don't know, but I haven't gotten there yet.) But it has the prettiest pictures. It is here.

If you must know, I was asked to speak in church on Sunday, and I am in the process of procrastinating preparing for it. Do you know I haven't spoken in church since highschool? And that the last time I spoke in front of anybody at church I almost fainted? So in the midst of my procrastination, I am trying to change my perspective. I am trying to turn my fear and apprehension of talking in front of a congregation into glee at the realization that a room full of people are obligated to listen to me for at least 10 minutes, and I can tell them any dang thing I want. Would it be inappropriate to just quote Saturday Night Live skits the whole time?

I want you all to know that I made a really good mix cd the other day. For springtime. It's probably my favorite so far, because I've been listening to it on hard repeat in my car for days. If I could burn you all a copy and send it to you I would, but you'll just have to be content with the playlist:

Friday, May 6, 2011

I've been having Fridays off of work lately (I know you think I'm going to link to a song, but I'm not. And I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about.) And lately on my Fridays off, I've been a big fat bag of slugs, as to my productivity. Meaning, my couch is my best friend (and my most bitter enemy.) I'm not even going to tell you how long its been since dishes got done around here.

But the point is that today was slightly better, in that I managed to wake, shower, and get dressed in something other than old jeans and an old t-shirt and even do my hair kind of, and get out of the house by noon. Well, noonish. I took the pup on a walk to the park down the street, the one with all the ducks and the river and the bags for your dog's poop. And we plopped ourselves down on a shady bench and we read our book, oh yes we did. I would like to point out that it's a matter of some significance to me that there was shade to be had AND needed. Looks like the weather finally realized that it's May. Yeah, it's about time.

Well, after that it was obviously time to go look for some rose bushes to plant. Because last night we had dinner with some of my family, and I was telling them of my love for roses and how I greatly desire to have some in my very own yard. And one of my aunts, who is gracious and beautiful and fair in all ways, handed me money with which to buy a rose bush. For an early birthday present! My birthday is forever away! I am clearly the favorite child of the universe, yesterday.

So today I girded up my loins and went to a local nursery. Because I am a girl who's name is on a mortgage contract, because I am a girl who knows she loves roses and knows she must have them, and I have joined the ranks of gardeners. Only once I passed over the nursery threshold and beheld the many much flowers that exist in the world and the varying degrees of sunlight they all need and the particular conditions they prefer their soil to be and how thirsty or not they are and suddenly I'm feeling very full of humble pie. I texted Tony: "Dude...I don't know jack about gardening."

So I guess I'm going to learn, slowly.

More importantly, look what I found.

Tell me that doesn't make you think of this:

Anyway, at the end of the day we have five rose bushes of our very own sitting in our backyard, waiting to be planted somewhere. And I hope to get many more, eventually. Robin McKinley will want to write a fairytale about me by the time I'm done.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

I tried being witty and using a Friends-like title for this post like all the cool kids do, but you can see how that went. We painted the bathroom today, I guess I'm a little fumey? Anyway, you'll see more about that later, sometime.

Nowtime, I'm going to talk about things for my bathroom wall. I was sitting in the bathroom one eve, contemplating what should be going on in there. Decoratively, you know. It was difficult to imagine anything but Decayed Exoskeleton Mud when that's the only color you can see, but I was trying to picture something lighter, airier -- maybe even, white! Yes it's true! Boring white walls are what I wanted! Now that that was decided, I thought I would like something artsy for the walls. Graphic, if you will? Originally I thought something organic, with lots of calligraphic line and more or less monochromatic. Like flowers. Orange flowers, maybe. And then I browsed Etsy for ideas, and remembered how much I like typography.

So I don't want to pay $35 for a typography print someone made on their computer, when actually I can make something on my computer. So I borrowed a few ideas and changed them up some and came up with a few designs.

First there are these, and I can't decide which one I like better, or if any at all. Can you?

The idea made me laugh at first, but I think I don't really love it enough. So then I made this, which I do love and which we will probably print out somehow and hang on our bathroom wall:

Now before anyone freaks out, I stole the idea from a talented Etsy seller named Handz, but I like my version better, and I'm not going to be selling this or anything. Seriously though, check out Handz because I want every other print in that shop.

And that is all. When the paint is dry and our bathroom is put back together, I'll share some boring before/after pictures which with hope will portray the vast difference in lightness and airiness.